"For more than two centuries, Edward Hyde, Viscount Cornbury - royal governor of New York and New Jersey from 1702 to 1708 - has been a despised figure, whose alleged transgressions ranged from raiding the public treasury to scandalizing his subjects by parading through the streets of New York City dressed as a woman." "This book, a tour de force of scholarly detection, challenges the standard view of Cornbury. Situating his career within the wider frame of early modern political culture, it explores such topics as the politics of late Stuart England; gossip, Grub Street, and the climate of slander; imperial finance and administration; the emergence of modern sexual culture; transatlantic communication; and constitutional perceptions in an era of reform." "Patricia Bonomi argues that Cornbury lived at the peak of an age of slander and satire, when politicians in England and colonial America routinely employed malicious gossip and sexual innuendo to crush their opponents. Within this context she reassesses the most "conclusive" piece of evidence wielded in the long campaign against Cornbury - a celebrated portrait, said to represent the governor in female dress, that hangs today in the New York Historical Society." "Part narrative, part cultural study, this book offers new insight into the conflicting ideals and emotions and the dynamics of complex loyalty that shaped the politics of the First British Empire - including those of the American Revolution."--BOOK JACKET.